Dayton Art Institute

The Dayton Art Institute’s (DAI) current building was built in 1928 thanks to the donation of Julia Shaw Patterson Carnell.  She hired architect Edward Brodhead who designed the façade after the Villa Farnese in Italy.  The grand staircase portrays Italian Renaissance design from Rome’s Ville d’Este.  Dayton’s iconic art museum was built atop a hill overlooking downtown Dayton and the Great Miami River.  Today, this Dayton Point of interest holds 20,000 objects spanning 5,000 years and resides on the National Register of Historic Places.